22 February 2009

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Yesterday (Sat.21.Feb.2009) I popped into Pat Grant's booklaunch at 'Brunswick Bound' bookshop on Sydney Rd, Brunswick. It was a warm afternoon, and walking up those familiar stairs...... to the exhibition space on the top floor brought back memories of Mandy Ord's booklaunch where is was a sweltering hot day too! What is it with people booking this bookshop for their exhibitions?... are they only available on hot days? (heh)... well anyway, Pat Grant's work is great. (Check out his website).

The launch was already hoppin' when I arrived...and it started to get full fairly quickly...The presentation of Pat's work was failry nicely done. Hand painted material was on the walls, as well as pages of his comicbook work (both framed and 'raw'). The were nibblies & drinks. A nice event.Pat's new comic 'The Last Share House' was launched & for sale.A few local comic'ers were also there to support Grant and his work, which is always good to see. Also there was 3CR's (The Comic Spot) John Retallick, Jo Waite, and a few other faces who's name I can't recall. Though sweating, everyone looked to have had a good time.

12 February 2009

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Have been more productive on finishing the next issue of DIGESTED (though printing it might have to wait until I'm employed again)... so here's that previous page I inked last week (see 3 blogs previous) all toned, lettered & complete.Since this page, I've done another 3 in all the free time I have now... but I don't want to spoil the surprise for you all by showing them ALL to you now. You'll have to wait for DIGESTED.02 to come out. Right now, it's looking to be a nice chunky book (compared to the first 20-pg issue.). It's around 36-44 pages in length at the moment, so until I find another job, I'll keep working on it, and who knows... it might end up being 50 or 60 pages?! - :)

08 February 2009

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Let me start by mentioning that the day was a stinking furnace of 46.7 degrees Celsius!

Anyway, I started the day by meeting up with Colin Wilson at 11am in Footscray to show him a quaint little art shop (West Art) that i shop at. It's tucked away in the corner on Buckley Street, as has a great selection of inks, nibs & other art stuff. Colin bought a few things, then we went back to my girl Zora's place to relax in air-conditioned comfort to waste some time before the meetup.

1.30pm came along and we drove down to the city toward Carlton for the meet. We got there pretty much on time and found Matt Emery there already. It wasn't long before Paul Beford, Jen, Trev and the rest trickled in. Here's a pic of the numbers this hot, HOT day...Considering the fan-forced oven weather, I was surprised that we had as many people brave the elements to show up... but hey, it shows how much we all like our comics and gathering up.John Retallick and Matt Emery actually rode in on their push-bikes?!The meetup was fun and enjoyable, but all were definitely a litle flat due to the heat. A few stayed longer just so they didn't have to go outside. We were waiting for the promised 'cool' change to arrive. At around 4.30pm Jen looked up some information on her mobile, to discover that it was still 46.7 degrees outside!... but a cool change was promised in an hour. We waitied and sure enough it came as we all decided to leave.

The meet this month was more about just chat & catching up... and it was at least nice to be in an air-conditioned pub than outside.

05 February 2009

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Lost my job this morning, and though it was a great company to work for, America's greed (the financial crisis) has kicked me in the gut and I'm one of the unemployed now.

Spent the morning updating my resume (found at: www.bluetoaster.com/folio), applied for 1 job, and am now typing this. So... thats it. Have done my bit for the morning and will start hitting up the Agencies for work tomorrow. I think I'll work on DIGESTED.02 for the rest of the afternoon to unwind a little.

On a brighter note, it's my brother's 29th birthday today, so I'll be unwinding tonight with a choice of about 8 pizza's and dvd's at my parent's house for the occasion.

02 February 2009

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I don't know why, but I've been hitting a humble rhythm in my productivity lately. Perhaps it's being in the 'home-stretch' of completing DIGESTED.02 that's given me this momentum because I've been getting about 2 pages done a week (on average) recently.

This weekend, I just finished inking and touching up the short 1-page story from the previous post. It's been scanned, toned and lettered and been checked off as 'done' on my little list of things to do for the DIGESTED.02 issue.

After this, I pulled out the very first story that I started drawing after I finished the first issue, but put on the back burner (for whatever reason), and am now going to finish it for this next upcoming issue of DIGESTED.02.

Initially, I only began sketching ideas, followed by what I was sure was the opening sequence. This was the initial start I made some 6 months ago...... so based on this previous start, I sat down on the weekend with the old script (and the above page) and re-wrote it out again in revised thumbnail form. Soon it was done, and I began to sketch the panels/scenes out in my sketchbook, and then finally started to ink in the final panels/scenes. (NB: The above inked page won't be wasted.)

Here's a page of the continuing sequences to the story that I started to ink last night:And a closeup of the eager little girl...Like I mentioned a few posts ago... I'm having fun inking at the moment... just letting go and enjoying the fluid stokes of the process and trying to be more productive. A constant reference of mine (and inspiration) is Dave Cooper. This guy is simply my favorite comicbook cartoonist.

Anyway... I'll be at our regular monthly comicbook meetup this Saturday, so if you're into comics or draw your own... come by and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.